THIJS WESTSTEIJN [ED.] The Universal Art of Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678) Painter, Writer, and Courtier Amsterdam University Press amsterdam studies in the dutch golden age 1 THE UNIVERSAL ART OF SAMUEL VAN HOOGSTRATEN 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 The universal art_Samuel Hogst.indd 1 04-06-13 16:01 Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age Editorial Board H. Perry Chapman, University of Delaware Lia van Gemert, Universiteit van Amsterdam Benjamin J. Kaplan, University College London Henk van Nierop, Universiteit van Amsterdam Eric Jan Sluijter, Universiteit van Amsterdam Marc van Vaeck, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven The universal art_Samuel Hogst.indd 2 04-06-13 16:01 1 2 3 4 THE UNIVERSAL ART OF 5 6 SAMUEL VAN HOOGSTRatEN 7 8 (1627-1678) 9 10 11 Painter, Writer, and Courtier 12 13 14 15 Edited by Thijs Weststeijn 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Amsterdam University Press 41 42 43 44 45 46 The universal art_Samuel Hogst.indd 3 04-06-13 16:01 Founded in 2000 as part of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Am- sterdam Centre for Study of the Golden Age (Amsterdams Centrum voor de Studie van de Gouden Eeuw) aims to promote the history and culture of the Dutch Republic during the ‘long’ seventeenth century (c. 1560-1720). The Centre’s publications provide an insight into lively diversity and continuing relevance of the Dutch Golden Age. They offer original studies on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Rembrandt to Vondel, from Beeldenstorm (iconoclastic fury) to Ware Vrijheid (True Freedom) and from Batavia to New Amsterdam. Politics, religion, culture, economics, expansion and warfare all come together in the Centre’s interdisciplinary setting. Editorial control is in the hands of international scholars specialised in seventeenth-century history, art and literature. For more information see www.aup.nl/goudeneeuw or http://cf.uba.uva.nl/goudeneeuw/. Cover illustration: Samuel van Hoogstraten (attr.), Young Man in a Turban, canvas, 65 x 50 cm, Qatar, Private Royal Collection The publication of this book has been made possible by: Stichting Charema, Fonds voor Geschiedenis en Kunst; J.E. Jurriaanse Stichting; M.A.O.C. Gravin van Bylandt Stichting; Stichting Familie Van Hoog- straten; The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); and the Amsterdam Centre for Cultural Heritage and Identity. Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam Lay-out: Heymans & Vanhove, Goes Lithography: BFC graphics & design, Amersfoort, the Netherlands Amsterdam University press English-language titles are distributed in the US and Canada by the Univer- sity of Chicago Press. isbn 978 90 8964 523 4 e-isbn 978 90 4851 859 3 (pdf ) e-isbn 978 90 4851 860 9 (ePub) nur 642 © M.A. Weststeijn / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2013 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. The universal art_Samuel Hogst.indd 4 06-06-13 12:06 1 2 CONTENTS 3 4 5 Preface Approaches to a Multifaceted Master 7 6 7 Prolog Samuel van Hoogstraten and the Golden Age of Dutch Art, Literature, 8 and Science: The Present Book and Future Research 21 9 10 Van Hoogstraten’s Theory of Theory of Art 11 jan blanc 35 12 13 Paradoxical Passages: The Work of Framing in the Art 14 of Samuel van Hoogstraten 15 celeste brusati 53 16 17 The Young Samuel van Hoogstraten, Corrected by Rembrandt 18 ben broos 77 19 20 “Zwierich van sprong”: Samuel van Hoogstraten’s Night Watch 21 paul taylor 97 22 23 Samuel van Hoogstraten’s Personal Letter-Rack Paintings: 24 Tributes with a Message 25 michiel roscam abbing 115 26 27 A Pledge of Marital Domestic Bliss: Samuel van Hoogstraten’s 28 Perspective Box in the National Gallery, London 29 herman colenbrander 139 30 31 Van Hoogstraten’s Success in Britain 32 fatma yalcin 161 33 34 Samuel van Hoogstraten, the First Dutch Novelist? 35 thijs weststeijn 183 36 37 Great Respect and Complete Bafflement: Arnold Houbraken’s 38 Mixed Opinion of Samuel van Hoogstraten 39 hendrik j. horn 209 40 41 42 43 44 5 45 46 The universal art_Samuel Hogst.indd 5 04-06-13 16:01 Appendix Arnold Houbraken’s references to Samuel van Hoogstraten and his ‘Introduction to the Academy of Painting’ edited and translated by hendrik j. horn 241 Bibliography 259 List of Illustrations 279 About the authors 285 Index 289 6 The universal art_Samuel Hogst.indd 6 04-06-13 16:01 1 2 3 4 PREFacE 5 6 7 Approaches to a Multifaceted Master 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678) was one of the most distinguished of European artists, ac- 18 cording to the Swiss abbot Gabriel Buzlin (1599-1681). Buzlin included him in a list of 166 paint- 19 ers of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries,Pictorum Europae praecipuorum nomina (c.1664).1 20 This judgment may have been colored by the abbot’s own collection: his Weingarten monastery 21 contained Van Hoogstraten’s only full-fledged altarpiece, The Vision of Saint Benedict.2 And later 22 scholars did not share his praise of the self-styled ‘painter of His Holy Imperial Majesty [Ferdi- 23 nand III]’.3 The literary historian Peter Schull, writing in 1833, asserted that Van Hoogstraten’s 24 poetic qualities greatly surpassed his talents in the visual arts.4 Even nowadays, the painter is 25 probably better known for a set of cumulative factors rather than for the quality of his figurative 26 works: as one of Rembrandt’s pupils, as a key author in the seventeenth-century theory of art, 27 and as a social climber who achieved success through a combination of prolific painting, poetry, 28 optical experiments, and European travels. 29 As the discipline of art history has increasingly highlighted the socio-economic context of 30 paintings and other interdisciplinary issues, scholarly interest in Van Hoogstraten’s multifaceted 31 career has caused his position to shift from that of a marginal figure in Rembrandt’s studio to 32 someone central to the art of the Dutch Golden Age. In the last two decades, not only museums 33 and departments of art history but also historians of literature, science, and even the new media 34 have increasingly paid attention to the Dordrecht master. The closing of the millennium pro- 35 duced six monographs about the artist and his work, most of which consist of more pages than 36 his own treatise on painting.5 37 The present book, resulting from a symposium in Amsterdam in 2009, is the first collec- 38 tive effort addressing Samuel van Hoogstraten. Nine scholars explore different facets of his life 39 and work: his theoretical treatise, artistic terminology, still life and genre paintings, perspective 40 boxes, as well as his travels, novels, and reputation. The different vantage points extend the analy- 41 42 43 44 7 45 46 The universal art_Samuel Hogst.indd 7 04-06-13 16:01 preface the universal art of samuel van hoogstraten sis to Van Hoogstraten’s teacher, Rembrandt, as well as his own best-known student, Arnold Houbraken, and other members of the Van Hoogstraten family. Furthermore, not only does the present book confront divergent scholarly backgrounds, it is also the first time that some of the authors have published their work in English, coming originally from Dutch, German, and French academic traditions. The present anthology thus intends to do justice to the works of, in his own words, the ‘universal master’ from Dordrecht (universeel of algemeen meester).6 Echoing a sentiment formu- lated most cogently by Leonardo da Vinci, who may have served as his example especially when pairing artistic and scientific interests,V an Hoogstraten advises his readers to practice ‘universal art’ or even ‘universal knowledge’ (algemeene wetenschap).7 This ideal not only joins painting to poetry. His treatise enumerates the manifold particulars of the visible world that are the object of the painter’s knowledge. Van Hoogstraten’s statement that an artist’s ambition should know no limits within the sublunar realm responds to the ideal of the polymath current in the scholar- ship of his day. He refers to the Dutch Republic’s foremost Universalgelehrter, Gerard Vossius, to argue that: It is harmful to think … that one would not be able to understand everything: because is there anything that can satisfy our mind completely …? Put so much science in it and fill it with so much knowledge of things as you can, it will only grow in desire and the more it holds, the more it seeks, being given neither a headache nor bad stomach by this. Our cupboards, says Cassiodoros, cannot hold more once they are filled: butthis treasure-house is never overloaded. When it has taken in very much already, it still yawns constantly after more, all the more so, says Cicero, since all liberal arts have a common linkage and are joined together as if through a kind of parentage.8 Do we hear an echo here of the young Samuel who set out, after being trained in Rembrandt’s studio with its encyclopaedic collection of natural and artificial curiosities, to see the world? Where are we now: Van Hoogstraten’s writings In 1924, the historian of European art theory Julius von Schlosser leveled his criticism at Van Hoogstraten’s writings, concluding that the Dutch Republic was ‘vastly uncommunicative in its main utterances’: its masters ‘painted diligently in their studios; they did not talk, and any literary aspirations were alien to them’.